Arijana Kajfes

Occular Witness (Monochromeye), silicone mask w. circuitry and two RGB LED lights; finger piece w. one red, green and blue light sensor (collaboration w. Alberto Frigo), 2004.

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Occular Witness (The Book), page from the black box edition, 2005

Occular Witness (Monochromeye), silicone mask w. circuitry and two RGB LED lights; finger piece w. one red, green and blue light sensor (collaboration w. Alberto Frigo), 2004.

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Occular Witness (The Book), page from the black box edition, 2005

Earth pp. 118–123

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Detail from The Undistorted Image of... (ver. 2), 2015

Earth pp. 118–123

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Detail from The Undistorted Image of... (ver. 2), 2015

The circle is an infinite circumference with no beginning or end. It is the universal sign of perpetual motion. It is an opening, a hole, a sphere. It can be an egg, a seed, an eye. SUN-A-NUS. The black all-absorbing hole.

Making circles to tune in the silent center of my mind, a small invisible point from which existence radiates. The absolute presence of being, by some given the name GOD, the principal object of faith.

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Croquis from sketchbook, 1987–88

The circle is an infinite circumference with no beginning or end. It is the universal sign of perpetual motion. It is an opening, a hole, a sphere. It can be an egg, a seed, an eye. SUN-A-NUS. The black all-absorbing hole.

Making circles to tune in the silent center of my mind, a small invisible point from which existence radiates. The absolute presence of being, by some given the name GOD, the principal object of faith.

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Croquis from sketchbook, 1987–88

Domes p. 126

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Circumambulations for Paris, red clay, gold leaf, rock crystal sphere, ballchain, 2017

Domes p. 126

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Circumambulations for Paris, red clay, gold leaf, rock crystal sphere, ballchain, 2017

Openings allow for passage between the worlds

vesica piscis Conversations with Ogotemmeli (p. 95), Marcel Griaule The residues of repeated repair and caregiving strengthen the body Body as house or community (huskropp–samhällskropp) Temple or sacred body

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Documentation from a visit to Nando, Mali (w. Katrine Helmersson), 2009

Openings allow for passage between the worlds

vesica piscis Conversations with Ogotemmeli (p. 95), Marcel Griaule The residues of repeated repair and caregiving strengthen the body Body as house or community (huskropp–samhällskropp) Temple or sacred body

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Documentation from a visit to Nando, Mali (w. Katrine Helmersson), 2009

Domes pp. 126–131

Guestbook (shaping comments) from Circumambulations for Stockholm, 2018

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Detail from Circumambulations for Stockholm, 2018

Domes pp. 126–131

Guestbook (shaping comments) from Circumambulations for Stockholm, 2018

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Detail from Circumambulations for Stockholm, 2018

Light pp. 30–39

Star of the 10th moon (2015) was built site-specifically with clay bricks. The clay was kept wet for the duration of the exhibition, with a person winding long strands of wet linen, to wrap and unwrap the earthen vessel every three days. In the end it was demolished back into a pile of wet clay.

The vessel carries the energy worked into it through the intention of the performer or directly through the performer’s body (as in art or rituals). An object can be seen as the embodiment or residue of action. This is the inherent power of the object.

The burnt clay objects in the work Undistorted Image of…(2015) are forms derived from collected images of people’s birthmarks. The birthmarks, Descartes wrote, were undistorted images of things perceived by the pregnant mother and exposed as prints on the skin of her foetus. They are flat and therefore the given form is one of an infinite number of interpretations.

These forms are also hollow with small holes for the passage of energy, as the hole in an eye that allows light to enter the body. The image must be interpreted, thereby distorted, to be seen.

the initial landing of the Nommo spaceship: “The ark landed at night on the dry soil of the Fox, stirring up a pile of dust raised by the whirling wind it caused... since it was made of the Nommo’s placenta, that is, of moist, soft earth, it slipped on the ground. The ark (when it) arrived on Earth, slipped in the mud. As it landed, the weight of the ark caused the ‘blood’ that saturated the placenta to spurt up into the sky. This ‘blood’ joined itself with the star called ie pelu tolo, ‘star of the tenth moon,’ witness to the resurrection of the Nommo, giving it being and brilliance.”

Power objects “take the form of an anthropomorphic or zoomorphic figure, an animal horn, a clay pot, a basket and many others [...] The container itself is a mere object until it is animated by medicines.”

Art and Spirituality, Wyatt MacGaffey / African Spirituality, ed. Jacob Olupona.

clay has memory

Le renard pâle, Paris, Institut d’ethnologie, 1965 Germaine Dieterlen & Marcel Griaule

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The Undistorted Image of Frosya, clay model, aluminum tray, 2015

Light pp. 30–39

Star of the 10th moon (2015) was built site-specifically with clay bricks. The clay was kept wet for the duration of the exhibition, with a person winding long strands of wet linen, to wrap and unwrap the earthen vessel every three days. In the end it was demolished back into a pile of wet clay.

The vessel carries the energy worked into it through the intention of the performer or directly through the performer’s body (as in art or rituals). An object can be seen as the embodiment or residue of action. This is the inherent power of the object.

The burnt clay objects in the work Undistorted Image of…(2015) are forms derived from collected images of people’s birthmarks. The birthmarks, Descartes wrote, were undistorted images of things perceived by the pregnant mother and exposed as prints on the skin of her foetus. They are flat and therefore the given form is one of an infinite number of interpretations.

These forms are also hollow with small holes for the passage of energy, as the hole in an eye that allows light to enter the body. The image must be interpreted, thereby distorted, to be seen.

the initial landing of the Nommo spaceship: “The ark landed at night on the dry soil of the Fox, stirring up a pile of dust raised by the whirling wind it caused... since it was made of the Nommo’s placenta, that is, of moist, soft earth, it slipped on the ground. The ark (when it) arrived on Earth, slipped in the mud. As it landed, the weight of the ark caused the ‘blood’ that saturated the placenta to spurt up into the sky. This ‘blood’ joined itself with the star called ie pelu tolo, ‘star of the tenth moon,’ witness to the resurrection of the Nommo, giving it being and brilliance.”

Power objects “take the form of an anthropomorphic or zoomorphic figure, an animal horn, a clay pot, a basket and many others [...] The container itself is a mere object until it is animated by medicines.”

Art and Spirituality, Wyatt MacGaffey / African Spirituality, ed. Jacob Olupona.

clay has memory

Le renard pâle, Paris, Institut d’ethnologie, 1965 Germaine Dieterlen & Marcel Griaule

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The Undistorted Image of Frosya, clay model, aluminum tray, 2015

Detail from The Undistorted Image of... (ver. 2), clay models, aluminum trays, 2015

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Detail from The Undistorted Image of... (ver. 2), clay models, aluminum trays, 2015

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V

Rotation p. 70

V

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1. SAMLAREN Hämtar från jordhögarna

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2. BLANDAREN Blandar och tömmer 3. MATAREN Drar ut och matar ormen

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V

4.ORMEN Lägger ut ormen i cirklar (medsols/motsols) 5. STAMPAREN Följer ormen och stampar rytmen som pressar ihop V

6. KOMPASSEN Markerar cirkeln och kallar till stillhet 7. TRÅDAREN Drar och fäster taggtråden

Circumambulations for Kivik (MA), earth, gravel, sand and lime, PP sack roll, barbed wire (w. Domoterra, Ricky Johansson and performers Sarali Borg, Malin Arnedotter Bengtsson, Stella Dieden Richter, Mamadou Sissoko), 2023

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Circumambulations for Kivik (MA), performative plan sketch, 2023

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Rotation p. 70

V

V

1. SAMLAREN Hämtar från jordhögarna

V

2. BLANDAREN Blandar och tömmer 3. MATAREN Drar ut och matar ormen

v

V

4.ORMEN Lägger ut ormen i cirklar (medsols/motsols) 5. STAMPAREN Följer ormen och stampar rytmen som pressar ihop V

6. KOMPASSEN Markerar cirkeln och kallar till stillhet 7. TRÅDAREN Drar och fäster taggtråden

Circumambulations for Kivik (MA), earth, gravel, sand and lime, PP sack roll, barbed wire (w. Domoterra, Ricky Johansson and performers Sarali Borg, Malin Arnedotter Bengtsson, Stella Dieden Richter, Mamadou Sissoko), 2023

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Circumambulations for Kivik (MA), performative plan sketch, 2023

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